Gateway to Utopia
by Lloyd Redgrave
Summary: History has an odd way of repeating itself. Starts around the same time as Roots; rating subject to change later on.
1. First Login

A/N – I hope that you guys like this fic...it might jump around a bit, but I'll do what I can to minimize the confusion.

Disclaimer: I don't own .hack...sad, but true.

The World.

There was a time where the famous – to some people, infamous – MMORPG had reached twenty million players on all of the servers combined. Of course, like any other game, The World had its fair share of bugs and glitches; unlike any of the other games on the market, however, some of these "glitches" and "bugs" were dangerous, even fatal: high-level monsters appearing in low-level areas, bugged monsters with no set health, people falling into comas in the real world after being defeated by said monsters...the list goes on. With the fire at CC Corp., most of the original files and data were lost, along with the majority of the characters' support.

Thus, The World R:2 was born.

The original game was redone, the character classes changed, added, or carried over from the old game; the human race wasn't the only one anymore, now accompanied by a few beast tribes, and the level of character customization was second to none. There were only a fraction of the players when compared to the original, but just like the last game, there were always rumors going about.

Every game has its secrets.

Kojima unlocked and opened the door to his apartment while sliding the small plastic bag that held his groceries and a VCR tape sized box to his hand, holding his books in his other; another long and horrid day at school, but that was normal for the sixteen-year-old high school student: constantly tormented by the other kids and living alone with no parents in a one person apartment in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

At least he had found a potential way to escape the rigors of the real world – if only for a little while.

He walked inside his living space after taking off his shoes, setting the books in the crook of his arm down among the sizable pile of other books and leaving the bag of foodstuffs, minus the box, on the small bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. He glanced at the front cover on the box: The World R:2.

He had already bought the things he needed in order to play the world renowned MMORPG: the M2D visor – freshly tested and debugged almost as quickly – was fairly expensive to the average consumer; then again, he didn't have to worry much about money nowadays; he always had the controller, since he need it to use his CPU. Kojima started up the computer and the screen flickered to life, greeting him with the default background and music, a ping signaling the arrival of a new email. Sitting down in his chair he picked up the controller and opened up his inbox, scrolling over the new message:

- - - - - - - - -

Kojima,  
I know that I probably don't need to tell you this, but make sure that you get that project turned in; knowing you, that shouldn't be a problem at all. J  
See you on Monday,

Katame

- - - - - - - - -

'Katame-sensei...' Kojima pondered, finally remembering the face of his Advanced Psychology teacher; a nice woman, but the niceness was heavily outweighed by the rest of her students, 'The bastards...' he quipped silently, remembering how one of them broke his left arm earlier that year: the older boy claimed that it was an accident, but the gleam that Kojima saw in his eyes betrayed thoughts having absolutely nothing to do with guilt.

Closing his inbox with a small huff of air, he opened up the disc drive, putting in the new CD and closing it, watching the little bar on the screen fill with a bright green light; he willed himself to stand up and walked out of his bedroom, putting away the rest of the foodstuffs he had brought and moving the few folders of drawings that sat on his futon into his room, setting them on his bed and checking the computer screen: it looked like the game was fully installed, two boxes meant for typing in information glaring at him from across the room. Sitting down again, he typed in what he needed:

- - - - - - - - -

USER NAME: JenovaClone  
PASSWORD: 

- LOADING -...- DONE -  
- PLEASE CREATE A CHARACTER -

- - - - - - - - -

Cracking his knuckles loudly he began to create his character, the facial features and various wave symbols appearing and disappearing with the press of a button, finally satisfied with the final look: slightly pale skin, gray hair that wasn't awfully dark but not too light, and teal eyes; his character wore a somewhat loose fitting blood-red vest over dark gray, sleeveless scale armor, held together by leather straps – most were hidden under the vest, but four were visible in the front. His dark red leather gloves almost reached his elbows, a wave symbol showing on the backs of the hand portion: a single line with two perpendicular curves, appearing as fangs. The rest of his clothes were relatively simple: gray, loose fitting leather pants and brown, battle-worn boots.

Now, for the class. He didn't really feel like being stuck with casting – healing or otherwise – so he looked at the mêlée classes; he also wanted to stay flexible, able to adapt to whatever came at him. Further down the list, he saw two words that popped out at him:

Adept Rogue.

"Sounds alright to me..." he muttered to himself while selecting the class, picking out three of the "subclasses" without much difficulty. Thus, he was given a final glimpse at the changes made: his right arm was mostly covered in a plate mail covering, starting just below the shoulder and almost reaching his wrist from under the leather glove. His left arm, however, he changed on a whim, placing it in a light gray sling that was held together by leather straps as if it was broken.

Putting on the headset he entered his character's name as Zol, and took his first steps in The World.

A/N – I know; not as long as I had hoped, but the next one should have more content. Read and Review please!

Until the next chapter (again, hopefully),  
_**Lloyd Redgrave**_


	2. Meet the Twilight Brigade

A/N – Woohoo! I got my first review ever! Seriously though, that one review gave me enough of a nudge to keep going with this story, so here ya go.  
My thanks go to Silva-kun for the review. :)

Disclaimer: Do I have to say this? ...fine, I don't own .hack.

He couldn't feel the blade slash his skin, but he knew that he was dead, his HP reduced to zero in a single hit. Zol's body collapsed onto the cold stone of the beast temple, skin turning gray and the pupils of his eyes shrinking. He heard the three people leaving, laughing to themselves and talking about how easy of a kill he was as they did. Then came the silence.

'Is this what it's like for everyone else: constantly being killed by other players?' he pondered to himself, unable to move. His train of thought was interrupted by someone's voice.

"HuaRip Maen!"

His pupils grew back to their normal size and the gray coloring on his skin was replaced by the usual pale-ish complexion. Slowly he sat up and pushed himself backward so that his back leaned against the treasure box for support; he kept his vision downward, still dismayed by how quickly he had died.

"Are you okay?" he heard the female character in front of him ask, and he let out a huff of air; 'Hardly.' He thought.

"Maybe I should just quit..." he muttered, and she knelt down to his level and tried to get him to look at her: it didn't work...yet. He didn't see the smile on her face.

"Don't quit." She spoke, placing a hand on his left shoulder, "I know what you're thinking: that this game is stupid, that it's pointless..." he felt the urge to look up at this woman, but wasn't convinced enough to will himself to do so yet, but she continued, "Well, this game isn't stupid...and it's not pointless." He couldn't help but look into her emerald green eyes this time, noticing the small smile she had donned as she said three words:

"We need you."

Zol could see the smile in her eyes as well, and he unconsciously smiled as well. The woman extended a hand towards him, and he grabbed it eagerly, being pulled up onto his feet in the process. 'Who is this woman?' he questioned silently, scratching the back of his scalp with his right hand once it was free and observing the person who had saved him; she looked scantily dressed – like most other women on these games, Zol mused – wearing a white corset and white stockings along with white sleeves and gloves. The giant white hat that she wore and her pink hair would most likely make her stand out in a crowd, and she had a single wave symbol – a teardrop – tattooed under her left eye.

"Uh, thanks for saving me..." he mumbled quietly, and she nodded with a small chuckle – not mischievous, but warm...almost motherly.

"You're welcome." She replied, holding out her hand in greeting, "I'm Shino...what's your name?" He took her hand and shook it.

"Zol." He looked over at the exit and saw that she was already leaving, "H-hey! Wait for me!" opening the large stone doors and running up the steps as fast as his feet could carry him, he finally caught up with Shino before she could use the warp point; he was about to say something, but she beat him to it.

"Do you want to come with me?" she asked him, and he froze: he was going to ask if she could help him, even if he was hesitant about doing so since she could be a Player Killer – PK for short – just like those other three people...but if that was the case, then why didn't she just leave him to die down there? Then again, she seemed a hell of a lot more friendly than those PKs.

"You...you mean it?" he queried with some nervousness and she nodded, leaving him to smile and nod in agreement. He heard a ping, meaning that he had received both her member address and a party invite, which he accepted without hesitation; making sure that the PKs from earlier hadn't stole the weapon he had found inside the beast temple – a one-handed sword that added to his critical strike rate – he equipped it and teleported alongside Shino back to Mac Anu.

As Shino and Zol stepped inside the guild's HOME – the Twilight Brigade as it was called – the Adept Rogue looked around: there wasn't much inside in the ways of furniture, but there was a portion of the guild's space devoted to plants. A red carpet sat in the center of the HOME, a lone pig-like creature standing there, humming to itself; Zol didn't recognize the tune, but he didn't mind...it was kind of catchy. He walked over to the small beast and squatted down to its level, noticing that the dark orange shades it wore were by far too small to be of any use. It also wore a wicker hat that was dyed navy blue.

'...The hell?' he wondered while reaching for the comically small shades, but immediately regretted it when his hand was bitten by the strange animal. With a small yelp he pulled his hand back and favored it. 'That little...!'

"Don't touch those! naru! I'll tell Master on you if you do that again! naru!" it spoke. Zol jumped backward in shock.

"Gah! It can talk?" he yelled, more to himself than anyone else, and the animal glared at him. Shino placed a hand on his shoulder and chuckled.

"That's a Grunty." She explained to Zol, and he gave her a look that showed his confusion. She sighed and shook her head slowly, "Didn't you read the manual?" he shook his head with eyes still glued to hers, barely seeing – through the corner of his eye – another person enter through the wooden doors. The man wore dark green leather armor, most of the torso covered by a fairly small faded traveler's cloak, and he carried something metallic on his back – a shield, the Adept Rogue guessed. He also noticed the onion-shaped helmet and goggles, and...were those leaves on the top of the helmet, or his hair? Zol couldn't tell from this angle.

"Huh? Who's this?" the man asked when he saw the newest member of the guild, Shino looking over at him and smiling.

"Hey Sakisaka; this is Zol." Shino said, giving Sakisaka a small smile, "He just started the game," she looked over at Zol and her smile grew, "and you should help him gain some levels every now and then." The Steam Gunner huffed in frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Aw! I have to work with a newbie?" he groaned, and Zol scowled with a sharp exhaling of air from out of his nose.

"I've played plenty of other games like this before..." he retorted, adding a bit of annoyance into his voice. Sakisaka crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side slightly.

"That must mean you're old, aren't you?" he questioned in annoyance; a vein on Zol's forehead bulged and throbbed a bit in anger – and the Adept Rogue was not that easy to anger.

"I'm old?" he growled, and the argument began: even after a half hour, there was no foreseeable end to the insults being thrown back and forth between the two; Shino just looked at them with a sigh as they argued. The two arguing men didn't hear the footsteps coming from the staircase, even if those footfalls were fairly heavy every other step, as if the person was carrying a heavy burden on one side.

"Kids these days..." The person muttered in an amused way, earning a reflexive glare from both Sakisaka and Zol.

"Like you would know!" they said at the same time, but immediately covered their own mouths in unison once they realized exactly who they yelled at.

The Guildmaster.

The man was a giant compared to everyone inside the lobby, had blue hair and a pair of rounded orange shades, along with a light blue scarf that covered some of the lower half of his face from their angle; he also wore light armor – light blue, green, and white being the main colors. The most defining feature, however, was the enormous seal around his left arm, held together by a large padlock.

The man simply chuckled and walked over to where Shino was standing – who held in her laughter as best as possible. They seemed to be going over...something; Zol couldn't exactly hear any of what was said between the two. Soon enough, the Guildmaster looked over his shoulder at the Adept Rogue and gave a short chuckle before opening one of the wooden gates and leaving, Shino following close behind.

The two guild members – still shocked over their blunder – took their hands away from their own mouths; Zol snickered, followed by full-blown laughter from the both of them.

A/N – Well, another day (or so), another chapter. Reviews are gold!

Until then,  
_**Lloyd Redgrave**_


	3. A bit of Training Never Hurts

A/N – Ah, another couple of days, another review! My thanks goes to DragonMaster Reborn for said review; with that said, I bring you the next chapter.

Disclaimer: ...Okay, fine! I don't own .hack or any of it's characters...except for Zol and his real life counterpart.

The Guildmaster – Ovan, if the new recruit recalled correctly – cut another branch, allowing him and Zol to continue through the ancient ruins; the walls were literally covered in, if not made entirely of vines and branches (much like the one that was now split in two), a thick layer of dust covered the old stones that made up the floor, and spider webs were abundant on the ceilings and otherwise. Zol found one of said spider webs blanketing his arm as small spiders started to crawl around and trying yet failing to get through the metal plates in his armor, brushing them off as quickly as possible in a short-lived panic.

'God I hate spiders...' his mind trailed off, and he almost walked right into Ovan, who had stopped to take a portion of another spider web, holding up the fistful of webbing – now spun in a crude orb much like cotton candy – and showing it to the Adept Rogue.

"Have you noticed the level of interactivity with the floor plan of this game?" He brushed it off and grabbed one of the vines on the wall, pulling it out as a bit of dirt fell from the newly made gap. He threw the vine away, motioning to their surroundings with his right hand, "Look around you, Zol: every square of this dungeon is hand-crafted; there is no sign of repetition to be found." The Adept Rogue's brow furrowed in thought.

"So you're saying that this game has no linearity to it?" he questioned his superior, who beamed at him.

"Exactly." He replied. As the pair continued, he showed the recruit the floor – now, instead of old stones and dust, was merely mud; "Look behind you and you'll see the footprints we've left," he pulled one of the many torches that lined the hallway out of its sconce and pointed to their changing shadows, "and notice how your shadow grows and falls with a change in light; the only silhouettes that characters cast in previous games were a mere disc at their feet." Zol scooped a bit of webbing into his fingers, pulling and squeezing it; how in the hell was CC Corp. able to write the coding for all of this and not have the main servers crash?

"Talk about attention to detail..." he muttered to himself, Ovan overhearing the quietly muttered thought and smiling to himself.

"Yes, this game is very interesting." Again, the Guildmaster stopped suddenly, Zol nearly bumping into him again, and they walked inside the small chamber wordlessly, the Gott Statue floating over the pit in front of them.

"Now for the real reason that we are here;" He heard Ovan say and turned to face the Steam Gunner, who had drawn his weapon, "Shino has told me that you've had some PK trouble." He pointed the bayonet at Zol as the young man equipped his new weapon, "I'm going to teach you to fight them; if you die during the training I will resurrect you, but you must learn to fight as if this were real life." Zol nodded, but immediately had to block Ovan's attacks once he did. After blocking for a few seconds, the Adept Rogue jumped to the side and towards Ovan, swinging his sword in an arc hoping to slash at the Steam Gunner's sealed left arm.

Ovan moved out of the way as if the metal casing weighed nothing and slashed at Zol, who barely blocked the attack before he was shot a split second later and drained of all of his HP. The Steam Gunner used a resurrection spell on the recruit.

"Again, but try to hit me this time." He ordered, the fight beginning again.

Yet again the fight was over and Ovan was the victor; Zol was getting the hang of things, however, and had managed to strike the Steam Gunner five times in a row before having to block the inevitable attacks. Of course, Zol's small victory was short-lived, but that was aside the point. Ovan resurrected the newbie for the tenth time that day.

"You're getting better." He said, putting away his gunblade before looking away briefly, "I have to leave for now; something has come up. Remember what I've told you." And with that said he left the dungeon, leaving the Adept Rogue alone with the treasure chest still unopened. Kneeling down, Zol searched the treasure chest and found another weapon suited for his class: a one-handed blade that looked fairly simple, but had flames painted on both sides where the cross guard – one that also partially protected his knuckles from the front – and the blade met; not to mention that it had a level five rarity. He checked the name of the weapon (as well as the stats) once he placed it in his inventory.

Inferno Blade; it boosted his attack power and his fire affinity with every level gained, and had a strong fire-elemental attack. He smirked: it definitely fit his look too.

As he equipped his weapon, he heard someone talking to him.

"Hey! You must be new to the game, aren't you?" the person behind him asked and Zol turned around, recognizing the group he saw: a Tribal Grappler, a Lord Partizan, and a Shadow Warlock.

The same group that PKed him not too long ago.

"Wait a minute...that's the newbie we killed not even a day ago, isn't it?" the Shadow Warlock questioned the Lord Partizan – the leader of the group from the sound of things – who rubbed her chin in thought.

"Hey, you're right!" she unsheathed her lance and pointed it at Zol menacingly, "This is gonna be easy!" Zol, who held his new weapon in hand and was looking down at nothing in particular, scowled as his left hand balled into a fist in its sling.

"I'm sick of you people..." he muttered, one of the bindings that held the sling in place popping loose, "preying on others that are weaker than you." The other binding popped loose and the sling fell apart (still hanging by the strap on his shoulder blade), his left arm free as he switched the blade over to his left hand – he never knew why but he preferred his left hand over his right, even if he was ambidextrous – and pointed the blade at his opponents.

"So you want to fight, eh? Let's get him!" the leader shouted, and they all leaped at him in unison; he simply rolled out of the way and slashed the caster – who he thought should have stayed behind – in the side four times and a final time in the back, the man's HP falling to zero from the combo. The other two PKs backed away slightly: this guy was stronger than before, that's for sure.

"Huh, he wasn't this strong last time." The Tribal Grappler spoke, Zol grinning at the frown on the leader's face. He quickly moved in while they hesitated, taking down the Tribal Grappler with a ten hit combo and turning to face the Lord Partizan, who's eyes were wide with shock.

"How the hell did you get this powerful!?" she questioned in an exasperated voice, and he grinned, pointing the blade at her throat.

The same way she did when she PKed him.

"I just know how to fight, that's all." He answered simply, the grin still plastered onto his visage; the woman swung her lance in a wide arc and made him back flip away, but he leaped that distance just as quickly and attacked mercilessly, draining her HP completely in ten strikes. With a huff of air, he let his weapon disappear in a small flash of light: sure, he had reached level twelve just by fighting the monsters in this dungeon, but fighting as Ovan had taught him made the level twenty-five PKs – three of them, no less – seem weak.

"Maybe Ovan was right;" he muttered to himself, not caring whether his enemies – now completely grayed out and fading away in a puff of smoke – heard him, "maybe there is something unique about this character." He made his way to the warp point, returning to town and to the guild's HOME and finding it...empty.

Well, almost empty: the Grunty was still standing in its place on the rug. He walked over to it and stooped to its level.

"Has Ovan come by recently?" Zol asked and the pig-like creature initially glared up at him, but the look changed once it saw who was speaking.

"Whew! naru! I thought you were Sakisaka for a second. naru!" it explained. Zol's brow furrowed.

"Have you seen Ovan?" he asked again, and Nazo Grunty nodded.

"He said to tell you that he'd meet you at Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation." It informed him, and he nodded as he stood, exiting the HOME and finally stopping in front of the Chaos Gate.

'So, Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation...' he thought, putting in the keywords and watching his character's body fade away in a flurry of azure rings.

A/N – Again, reviews are like (insert favorite cookie here)! ...Oh! Before I forget: check out my other book too if any of you readers feel like it; it's a Final Fantasy one, so if you like that series then have at it. :)

Until the next chapter,  
_**Lloyd Redgrave**_


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